Accidental Breakage
by badly-knitted
Summary: Bikky has an accident with one of Ryo's potted plants and must deal with the evidence before his foster father gets home. Set around Vol. 4 or 5. Written for fic promptly.


**Title:** Accidental Breakage

 **Author:** badly-knitted

 **Characters:** Bikky, Melinda, Ryo.

 **Rating:** G

 **Setting:** Around Vol. 4 or 5.

 **Summary:** Bikky has an accident with one of Ryo's potted plants and must deal with the evidence before his foster father gets home.

 **Word Count:** 1150

 **Written For:** My own prompt 'Any, Any, Knocking a plant off the windowsill,' at fic_promptly.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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Bikky knew he shouldn't have been in Ryo's bedroom in the first place. Not that he was banned or anything, but it was kinda rude to go in there when he didn't have permission and Ryo wasn't even home. It was just… Ryo's birthday was in a couple of weeks and Bikky had been saving part of his allowance every week for a couple of months now, wanting to get his foster father something really nice. He just didn't know what and needed inspiration, so he'd figured if he just took a look at what Ryo already had, then maybe it would give him some ideas.

That had been the plan anyway, but it was proving trickier than expected. He'd thought maybe a new belt or a tie, but judging by the contents of the racks in Ryo's closet, he had plenty of both. The same went for sweaters, although Bikky made a note of Ryo's size just in case he and Carol saw one at the weekend. They'd decided to go present hunting together on Saturday after seeing a movie.

Ryo liked to read, so maybe he'd like a book, except Bikky had no way of knowing what his dad had already read. With a frustrated sigh, he slumped back against the windowsill and took in the room, thinking hard, and wondering where he could look for ideas next without invading Ryo's privacy too much. Maybe the dresser.

Pushing himself upright again, his elbow caught on something, and before he could catch it, one of the potted plants Ryo had arranged along the ledge fell onto the floor with an almighty crash. Shards of china from the old saucer it had been sitting on skittered across the floorboards, along with shattered fragments of the terracotta pot, while dirt and grit went everywhere.

Bikky stared at the mess in abject horror. "Oh crap!" he muttered under his breath. Now what was he going to do? Ryo would be home from work in a couple of hours! Bikky had been so careful in his snooping, hoping it would go undetected, but even at his most oblivious, Ryo couldn't fail to notice a mess like this. He wouldn't be much of a detective if he did. There was nothing for it but to clean up before Ryo got in.

Picking his way gingerly towards the door, so he wouldn't track dirt through the rest of the apartment, Bikky went to the kitchen closet to fetch the dustpan and brush, along with a trash bag to put the broken crockery in. As an afterthought, he grabbed an old newspaper from the recycling. He'd wrap the plant in that for the moment. Maybe Melinda next door would have a spare pot he could put it in. She knew about plants and had a ton of them on every windowsill. It was one of the reasons she and Ryo got along so well.

Back in Ryo's bedroom, Bikky picked the plant out of the remains of its pot and wrapped the roots in a sheet of newspaper. A couple of its leaves had broken off, but other than that it didn't look too badly damaged. Maybe it would be okay. Setting it on the windowsill, he started to sweep up the mess he'd made, pouring dirt and broken pottery into the trash bag. That cleared up the worst of it, but it was still nowhere near Ryo's standards of cleanliness.

Dropping the bag down the trash chute and returning the dustpan and brush to the closet, Bikky fetched the vacuum cleaner, and starting at the bedroom door, worked his way across the floor, making sure not to miss a single grain of dirt. He even vacuumed under the bed itself, crawling right underneath it to get at the bits of pot that had gone under there, and finding some pretty impressive dust bunnies, a sock, a pen, and fifty cents into the bargain. He put the sock in the laundry hamper, the pen and the money on Ryo's nightstand, and the vacuum cleaner back in the kitchen closet, then went back to get the plant, but paused, frowning slightly.

The problem now was that the floor looked almost too clean compared to the rest of the room. Ryo had been working long hours recently and hadn't had much time for domestic chores. Bikky shrugged, deciding giving everywhere a quick wipe over with a duster might help, so that was what he did. Turned out he was right, it made a big difference. Now all that was left was to deal with the plant. Gathering it up, he took it next door to Melinda.

She was a grumpy old woman, but she minded him when Ryo had to be out late so Bikky was used to her. He even kinda liked her. "Oh, it's you," she greeted him with her usual scowl.

Bikky grinned. "Yeah, it's me. Hi, um, I had a bit of an accident, knocked Ryo's plant off the windowsill and the pot broke." Bikky held up the plant as evidence. "I was kinda hoping you might have a spare pot, and maybe some fresh dirt for it, what with you knowing so much about plants."

"Humph," said Melinda, scowling at the plant but seeming pleased to be sought out for her knowledge of them. "You'd best come in then."

Bikky did as he was told and was led into the kitchen, where Melinda covered the table with a sheet of plastic and produced both a nice clean pot and a bag of potting compost.

"You're lucky," Melinda said, dumping everything on the table. "Had some left over from re-potting back in the spring."

Bikky set the plant on the table, carefully unwrapping it, and under Melinda's supervision, settled the poor, battered thing in its new pot, and gave it a drink of water. To his eyes at least, it looked better already. When all was done according to Melinda's exacting standards, Bikky carried the plant carefully back home, where he dug another old saucer from the back of the kitchen cupboard and restored the plant to its place on Ryo's windowsill. Standing back, well away from the windows this time, he studied the room critically, but it looked fine now. Apart from the plant's missing leaves, there was nothing to show that he'd even been in Ryo's room and Bikky breathed a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him and crossed the living room, sitting down beside the coffee table to do his homework.

He frowned at his open schoolbooks and chewed the end of his pencil, deep in thought. Maybe he could get Ryo a book about houseplants; he didn't seem to have one, and he did like his plants. Mind made up, he bowed his head over his books and started trying to unravel the mysteries of geometry.

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The End


End file.
